Anafi Parrot dropping out of the sky.

[chochmah]

Good afternoon,

after around a 100 flights my Anafi parrot (software version 1.6.7) suddenly tumbled out of the clear sky a couple of days ago. I was looking at the stationary drone from around 65 meters distance while it happened and there was no collision with a bird, as far as I could see the airspace around the drone was empty in every direction. The drone had just finished taking a 360 degree panorama (Attached) and seconds after the panorama was finished the it dropped vertically while tumbling slowly. WIFI strength was good, battery was over 50% and there were no controller inputs from my side. Fortunately it landed unharmed in a snowbank and I could retrieve it it.
The problem I have now is that the drone can not be shut off via the button on the smart battery anymore. When pushing the button the drone just powers down for a fraction of a second and then restarts itself. The only way to shut it down is removing the battery. The button does not seem to be stuck and I tried resetting the battery and hard resetting the drone but to no avail.
I'd like to ask if the likely problem is the battery and contacting Parrot with the problem has much chance of success (ie. replacement of the probably faulty battery). I've read that others had similar crashes happen to them and I'm appending the .json file so people who collect information about this type of crash can have a look at them. Needless to say my confidence in the drone is a bit ruffled. I'm not going to feel confident flying again, even in unpopulated areas, if there is a reasonable chance of a sudden loss of power followed by a drop.

Thank you and cheers!

Edit: Video of the Battery malfunction:

 

[Deleted member 3201]

Sad to hear. I am seriously looking into the air 2

 

[Chasbro]

Sorry about your fall. I've had 3 of then in one month. As far as the battery, the power button is really a hinged flap with a fixed pushrod on the bottom that acts on the micro switch below. There is a ledge all around the flap where debris can collect and prevent the flap from returning all the way. An upside down crash can also smush debris into the flap clearance. It might be possible to hold the button down and clear the debris with compressed air.
I wish Parrot would go back to 1.6.3.

 

[IronSky1]

Sounds like Parrot is not ontop of this problems seems to be several users with fall from sky issue. Very serious hopefully they get to the bottom of it.

 

[tmgrood]

Sad to hear. I am seriously looking into the air 2

Anafi has always been my go to drone but until things are worked out I will fly my Mavic Mini.

 

[Gipsz Jakab]

Good afternoon,

after around a 100 flights my Anafi parrot (software version 1.6.7) suddenly tumbled out of the clear sky a couple of days ago. I was looking at the stationary drone from around 65 meters distance while it happened and there was no collision with a bird, as far as I could see the airspace around the drone was empty in every direction. The drone had just finished taking a 360 degree panorama (Attached) and seconds after the panorama was finished the it dropped vertically while tumbling slowly. WIFI strength was good, battery was over 50% and there were no controller inputs from my side. Fortunately it landed unharmed in a snowbank and I could retrieve it it.
The problem I have now is that the drone can not be shut off via the button on the smart battery anymore. When pushing the button the drone just powers down for a fraction of a second and then restarts itself. The only way to shut it down is removing the battery. The button does not seem to be stuck and I tried resetting the battery and hard resetting the drone but to no avail.
I'd like to ask if the likely problem is the battery and contacting Parrot with the problem has much chance of success (ie. replacement of the probably faulty battery). I've read that others had similar crashes happen to them and I'm appending the .json file so people who collect information about this type of crash can have a look at them. Needless to say my confidence in the drone is a bit ruffled. I'm not going to feel confident flying again, even in unpopulated areas, if there is a reasonable chance of a sudden loss of power followed by a drop.

Thank you and cheers!

Edit: Video of the Battery malfunction:

Meanwhile, Parrot has fixed the problems, which he acknowledged. Firmware version 1.6.8 has been released.
This crash even happened with the faulty 1.6.7 firmware. Why didn't you update?

 

[Deleted member 3201]

Meanwhile, Parrot has fixed the problems, which he acknowledged. Firmware version 1.6.8 has been released.
This crash even happened with the faulty 1.6.7 firmware. Why didn't you update?

I believe it was not available at the time; he posted on Monday and the crash happened "a couple of days ago" so it would have been last week. The 1.6.8 firmware released this week

 

[Ross]

For me bad story today too. I flew about 15 minutes without any problem. Suddenly I was about 20m high, 27% of battery, I was watching to it and he felt like a brick out the sky, 2 broken legs, camera out of center.... 18 months old. I heard already a lot about Anafi who dropped out the sky, I never got any problem, but today it was my turn. I hope there is some warranty because I have the logfile. Also in the logfile, it say crash = 0

All latest updates were done, so....

 

[Ana789]

What fw versions are you on? RC and Anafi, which FF6 version?
Batteries updated, some time this year?

 

[Ross]

What fw versions are you on? RC and Anafi, which FF6 version?
Batteries updated, some time this year?

I did yesterday all the updates I could do, drone 1.6.8 controller 1.6.3. all batteries were already updated and reset.

 

[Ana789]

That is bad news for us pilots and Parrot, then!
Seems to be the second Anafi (in this forum), falling down AFTER the latest update.

 

[d95gas]

This is not good for us, one part of me wants this to be the fault of Parrot, so these guys can get their Anafi's replaced. The other half of me wants it to be some other malfunction that can be explained.

The 1.6.8 upgrade was looking really good up until now .

did you update the batteries when you updated the firmware to 1.6.7 which went out not too long ago, or was it some time back when you did it, i.e 2019?

Posting the .json file would be useful so we can try and work out whats gone wrong.

 

[Ross]

This is not good for us, one part of me wants this to be the fault of Parrot, so these guys can get their Anafi's replaced. The other half of me wants it to be some other malfunction that can be explained.

The 1.6.8 upgrade was looking really good up until now .

did you update the batteries when you updated the firmware to 1.6.7 which went out not too long ago, or was it some time back when you did it, i.e 2019?

Posting the .json file would be useful so we can try and work out whats gone wrong.

No all updates done in the last week, battery and software, all done.. I can't give the logfile because of gps location, I'm flying on military bases (for me job)

 

[d95gas]

Ah ok, no problem. If flying on a military base, is there a possibility there could of been something that interrupted the signal.

I also work on military bases, about 20+, and I know that when I have had my Mavic Pro running (no props), I get a lot of drop in signal because of "some of the stuff" running on the base.

 

[Ross]

Ah ok, no problem. If flying on a military base, is there a possibility there could of been something that interrupted the signal.

I also work on military bases, about 20+, and I know that when I have had my Mavic Pro running (no props), I get a lot of drop in signal because of "some of the stuff" running on the base.

I was about 50m away from the drone, so I never got a warning or a frozen screen, everything runs correct for me..

 

[Deleted member 3201]

Shame about the no screen recording, hope they will fix it

 

[zandoli]

Are your batteries getting charged to maximum capacity?
Could be the dreaded unbalanced cells.
I really wish Parrot would give us access to the individual cell info in FF6.

 

[Ross]

Are your batteries getting charged to maximum capacity?
Could be the dreaded unbalanced cells.
I really wish Parrot would give us access to the individual cell info in FF6.

Yes they are. I always start flying with fully loaded batteries.


Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met Tapatalk

 

[zandoli]

Yes they are. I always start flying with fully loaded batteries.


Verzonden vanaf mijn iPhone met Tapatalk

I am not sure that you understood what I was asking.
When you tap on the drone icon in FF6, scroll up under the map, you will see the 'Maximum battery capacity' when the drone and FF6 are connected.
If 'Maximum battery capacity' is at 100%, after your batteries are fully charged, this is an indicator that your batteries are still getting fully loaded.

 

[Ross]

I am not sure that you understood what I was asking.
When you tap on the drone icon in FF6, scroll up under the map, you will see the 'Maximum battery capacity' when the drone and FF6 are connected.
If 'Maximum battery capacity' is at 100%, after your batteries are fully charged, this is an indicator that your batteries are still getting fully loaded.

Didn't know that, thanks about that, just checked it, for my 3 batteries, I have 96% with the one I crashed, second 92% and third 89%. But as I read after a new reload the value can change?...